The present invention pertains to equipment used in the raising of swine in a confinement facility and particularly to the fencing or gates used to separate a confinement facility into pens.
In the present practice of commercial raising of hogs, large enclosed buildings are used to house the animals and to control the exposure of the animals to disease. The buildings are constructed with large open areas in which are placed pen units which typically comprise discrete fencing units called "gates" or "hog gates" arranged to form series of rectangular pens. The confinement buildings typically are rectangular enclosed units with centrally located doors on the opposing short ends of the building and with a central alley extending between the doors of the building, with the alley defined by walls of the pens.
The gates which comprise the walls of the pens which define the alley may be opened in a swinging fashion so that hogs may be driven to and from the pens and along the alley to one of the building's doors.
In order to maximize the usefulness of the hog confinement building, it is preferable to keep the central alley as narrow as possible, yet wide enough to allow persons to walk down the alley comfortably. However, when hogs are moved down the alley, difficulties arise in driving the hogs along the narrow alley. Using shorter pen walls extending from the outside walls of the building to the central alley reduces the space available to house hogs but allows a wider alley along which hogs may be more easily driven. A wider alley allows multiple hogs to walk side by side and eases the effort in keeping the hogs moving toward the door. In addition, a hog which reverses its direction on leaving a pen can be turned around easily, while a hog headed in the wrong direction up a narrow, two-foot alley does not have room to reverse direction and must be physically lifted on its hind legs and turned around.